The Sacrificial Goat
*Note: this was two years ago and do not go looking for this.*
As October approaches, people like to get creepy. For some reason, dressing up as serial killers or fairy princesses seem to just go along with the falling leaves and dropping temperatures; no idea why, but I guess it has just been established. Because of this extra creepiness that is present during this time of the year, I thought I would share an experience that I had when I was heading into my junior year at George Fox University.
It was around 8 p.m. on the George Fox University campus. The sun had been set for a couple of hours replaced by an inky sky and a cascade of showers typical of any Oregon day. I should have been studying, nose pressed up in the spine of a book sitting in a dry, warm room sipping some hot chocolate with too many marshmallows. Instead, I was knee-deep (literally) in sewage water with a wooden club in one hand and the words “welcome” written on the wall of a sewage tunnel. Nevertheless, I stumbled deeper into the cold water with my flashlight bouncing off concrete walls. I was investigating what Area Coordinator Matt Dyment called “the darkest moment on campus.”
When I was in my freshman year at GFU, I was bright-eyed and overwhelmed with textbooks and new acquaintances but nevertheless, I was loving my time at my Christian school. However, I was brought to a halt on Halloween night when my RA told me the rumor of the GFU tunnels. She spoke of a horrific story said to have taken place on Halloween night years ago. She said it was the reason RAs are required to stay on campus on Halloween.
Nearly a year later, Matt Dyment recalls this rumor to me. He says, “So rumor has it, I wasn’t there I can’t confirm, that a goat was sacrificed in the canyon on Halloween night. Its entrails were hung up [on nails] in this specific spot.” That “specific spot” is how the rumor of the GFU tunnels started. According to Dyment, the student who sacrificed the goat is a current employee at GFU. A couple of years ago he told Dyment where the spot was but, “shady, weird, and dark things happen there.”
Dyment was told to go down into the GFU canyon and follow the creek until he found a concrete tunnel. The tunnel goes under Highway 99 to Hoover Park where the creek continues.
After interviewing him, Dyment gathered a few male students and we went to investigate. I stood knee-deep in sewage water with a flashlight in hand and trying to not shiver as he peered up the large sewage pipe. Water flooded down it at crazy-fast speeds. Dyment told me that there was no way we would be able to make it up into the culvert until summer came around.
So when summer finally made an appearance, I dawned on my hiking boots, stuck a pocket knife in my jacket, secured a raincoat, and headlamp on myself. Dyment gathered me and two young men who lived near me. I found myself standing in the same sewer as I did a couple of months ago. It still had the same eerie feeling as before–like we should not be there. Something was not right. I flashed my light towards the end of the tunnel, past the scribbled welcome sign and the scurrying spiders towards the end of the tunnel that went underneath Highway 99 and to the park on the other side. Anyone could be standing in here with us, and we would never know. Anyone.
Dyment secured a rope around himself and adjusted his headlamp before pressing himself into the tunnel and slowly working his way up the slant while water rushed between his feet. It took him about twenty minutes to make it up, but once he did he tossed a rope down to us and told us not to fall otherwise it would be a long, uncomfortable way down.
Come back next week to find out what happens.